What are you doing on 11/11? If Alibaba has its way, you’ll be shopping.
The holiday, also called “Singles’ Day,” is bigger than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. It generated more money from sales than the GDPs of 83 countries.
Singles’ Day was started by Chinese college students in the 90s. The four “ones” celebrate being single. The obscure tradition quickly became popular in 2009, when China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba began promoting it. Only 27 vendors offered special deals in the first year. Now, over 16,000 sellers participate.
Singles’ Day hasn’t caught on in the U.S. yet. But don’t be surprised if retailers try to rally shoppers to another artificial holiday.
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